Kamikaze Moogle
by CrazyRabidChicken of Nibelheim
Summary: Title has nothing to do with story for now. When two girls of our world are transported during an earthquake into the Lifestream and spit back out into the world of FFVII, what will ensue? Post Advent Children, PreDirge of Cerberus
1. THE BEGINNING

Kamikaze Moogle

Disclaimer: I do not, nor do I claim to, own anything with reference to Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, or anything having to do with all those folks. Lah dee dah. And, props to FaithfulFeather for feeding my inspiration while I wrote this first chapter.

_Chapter One_

Thorn blinked her eyes slowly, her breathing equally sedate. The plain black text against the white toolbar of her laptop informing her that it was no longer late, but early. Her tired brain urged her to close the white iBook, to turn off the surgically white light overhead and remove the rounded rectangle glasses perched on her nose. Her sleep-deprived brain urged her to let go of the white and fall happily into the black.

Yet there was a sort of awake calm about her at the same time. Some mad combination of the knowledge that she was the only one within her hearing or sight awake other than her best friend, and that she, Thorn, had surpassed the night into the dark-held day; a combination of that knowledge and artificially-alert senses kept her attentive, her myopic eyes using their aids effectively in order to decipher the small text on the computer screen into words comprehendible by her young mind. Thorn looked away from the screen for a moment, sparing a second to reach out with her right hand to clasp nimble fingers about a crinkly yellow Nestle bag. Shaking a few semi-sweet chocolate chips into her left hand, Thorn tipped her head back, popping back the tiny opieds like pills to fuel her campaign against the armies of fatigue and exhaustion (which might as well have been the same thing, it mattered little.)

With the intent of wiping any microscopic trace of the fast-melting chocolate that might have been left on her palms, Thorn wiped her extremities on the knees of her dark green cargo pants, pushing up her glasses by the small section holding together both lenses with her middle finger, then allowing her hands to resume their place at the keyboard, typing away without having to consciously consult her memory as to where each letter went. As she finished her sentence, Thorn found herself craving that prized, tiny green object. Lifting herself from the white sheets of the bed she, two laptops and a best friend shared, Thorn crossed the room where a black sweatshirt lay crumpled on the floor. Rummaging through the kangaroo pocket, small pale scars flashed against tan skin as Thorn's hands disappeared into the extensive folds of her uncle's sweatshirt, until finally (after a second or two) her fingers closed around it. Drawing it out into the surgical illumination of the room, Thorn's left hand thumb slid over the metal wheel swiftly, pressing down on the red button in that closest instant. A burst of thin, gas-fed fire poured forth from the metal head of the lighter, disappearing as Thorn lost interest and stopped holding down the necessary gas-provider.

The need to pee drove Thorn to her feet once more, glancing over at the girl on the bed, maneuvering a black laptop momentarily before walking silently through the door. The darkness of the hallway was absolute, a thin line of yellow giving Thorn some hint as to where everything was. After she had reached the stairs however, only her feet told her where she was going. Making out shapes in the dark once the light had disappeared was nearly impossible. In fact, Thorn wondered whether what she thought she saw was the frame of the bathroom door or merely swirling blackness before her eyes after the stairwell. Once stairs had separated Thorn from the one room in which light still held, the house seemed to grow in size, dark mirages convulsing and swirling before her. The house seemed derelict now, and would have disturbed Thorn if she had not had the mindset to remember quite plainly that she was here with Lily.

A minute or so later Thorn was back on the bed, her eyes staring in a manner appearing much more forlorn than was truthfully reflected in Thorn's psyche. She popped a few more chocolate chips into her mouth, chewing the soft morsels pensively. Suddenly, there was a small jerk. Thorn's brown eyes locked onto the blue-gray ones of Lily. There was another jerk, bigger this time, then quiet. Thorn and Lily shared a look for a moment, then looked into the distance through the window with concern.

"Lil…" said Thorn, in a voice tugged on by the roughness of dissolved, cheap chocolate and tiredness, deeper and more hoarse than normal. "That's the second in two days…" Lily said nothing, her eyes not returning to her friend as though she was waiting for anything more. When nothing else happened, she looked back at Thorn.

"Yeah…and you know what that means…" Lily's face held no expression to clue Thorn in as to what she was talking about—other than, of course, what everyone said these days: 'the big one's coming.'

"Hmm?" Thorn replied.

"The apocalypse." The utter deadpan nature of the way this line was delivered made it amusing. Thorn's face split into a grin and she chuckled slightly as she rolled her eyes.

"Well, at least that was original," she said, drawing her umber eyes back down from the ceiling. They lapsed into silence once more, each making a shoddy half-job at trying to write something decent and find any interesting fan fiction online at the same time.

Within about ten minutes, the words, "Hey, I think I found something," emitted from Lily. "This thing is SOOOOO cute! Chicken, you have to read this!" Without even bothering to think twice about the use of her nickname, Thorn nodded and replied.

"Send it to me."

"Mkay." Thorn opened a new window in the Safari browser she had been examining, clicking through various windows on until she reached her own page.

_**New messages!**_read a vermillion link halfway down, which Thorn clicked, eyes trailing over the familiar anime drawing of an innocent-looking chibi child with a bloody club held behind its back that was Lily's icon. Clicking on the linked subject of the message, Thorn copy-pasted the link inside and eyed the 'new blood' of a fan fic as it loaded. Thorn was halfway through reading the first lines when a definite _jolt_ ran through the house, a more violent earthquake than before, and closer to the previous one than either Thorn or Lily cared to note.

However, unlike previous tremors, this one did not subside. Another _jolt _followed, then a terrible shaking, making the bed the two girls rested on quiver viciously.

"Holy shit, what the fuck?" said Thorn sharply, her protective, motherly instincts toward her laptop kicking in as her hands closed the computer sharply and tucked it into her arms.

"This is insane—Chicken, doorways!" Lily said over the growing roar of quaking earth. Thorn picked up her leather fingerless gloves reflexively (one's brain does not always operate plainly when the entire house was shaking) and set down her laptop on the floor as she and Lily both went to Lily's doorway hugging the frame for support.

"This is crazy! We haven't had an earthquake like this in a mother-fucking _century_!" cried Thorn.

"Some night for my mom and dad to leave us alone," said Lily in a dry tone as the lights went out abruptly, leaving them in the swirling, shaking darkness. Thorn did not answer as the shaking continued, books falling from their haphazard piles with resounding _thunks_. In that moment the blackness all around them seemed to convulse, then shift, and before either knew what was happening, flashes of streaming green filled their surroundings, interspersed with the new darkness that had replaced the shaking one from before. Thorn's eyes squeezed shut, blotting out the glare of pale green.

And all at once, it stopped.

Thorn's umber eyes opened slowly, their first concern immediately known as her gaze jumped to Lily, who remained by her side.

"Hey, Chicken, y'okay?" The words from the older girl satisfied Thorn's desire to be sure Lily was all right.

"Yeah, fine…what the fuck?" The words jumped from her mouth almost in reflex, as though anything that happened now would be met with that profane response. For now that Thorn had allowed her attention to move to other things not associated with Lily, she realized that they were no longer in Lily's house at all. They were outside in an area densely forested, with a night (or day?) sky overhead barely visible, and from what Thorn's adjusting eyes could see, terrain covered in shrubs and of an extremely uneven nature.

"Jesus Christ, where _are_ we?" said Lily, straightening from her previously hunched position and looking around as well. The two shared a glance, and conveyed through this meeting of the eyes was the thought, _Who the hell knows…_

At that moment, however, the silence that had before only been broken by the words of two confused teenagers was interrupted by something else, as well. More voices, coincidentally, low and vague to the ear. Then a rich, crackling noise, followed by a flickering of light in the distance that Thorn felt sure must be fire.

"Hear that?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Maybe someone'll know what the hell's going on."

"Let's go."

The two made their way closer to the unknown source of light, stumbling every so often over shrubs or unexpected variations in the level of the ground. In time, they drew near to a clearing, easily identifiable at this point as the location from which the fire came. Glances between the teenaged females became frequent as they drew closer.

Without warning, cold steel pressed against Thorn's temple, and another look in the direction of Lily showed the flash of a sword directed only too easily in place to make a deathblow. However, the movements of the assaulting personages had been too fast for either teenager to even see who is was that was threatening them. Thorn's heart rate picked up; waiting for the directions she knew were coming from whoever held a gun to her head.

"What are you doing here?" The voice that spoke was deep and rather hoarse, as though the man using it had only just begun to be used to speaking again after a long quiet. For some reason Thorn felt that she had heard it somewhere before. "And be careful how you answer."

Thorn gulped, her tongue running over her lips and her eyes jumping to her friend again. _Be careful how you answer._ The only answer available to them would sound just as though they were lying, and the impression of deceit would definitely not be beneficial to the situation. Thorn took it upon herself to speak first.

"We…don't know," she said, going on quickly. "We were in her house," she tilted her head in Lily's direction. Thorn found that as her head moved, the steel of the gun went with her, following closely as though in reminder of what was at stake. "Then there was an earthquake—a big one, and we ended up here."

"We don't know what happened," Lily chimed in. "We saw light and heard voices, so we came closer. We didn't mean to intrude…" While they had been making their rather pathetic attempts at convincing the two that they were not good candidates for death, others had come into the trees from the clearing. The flickering light of the nearby fire through their faces into dim relief, features barely visible. Thorn could not see whoever was still holding a gun very diligently to her head, so she stared at them.

Two females, both dark-haired, though one was visibly older and more mature in all proportions of the body. It took Thorn a moment before the young otaku realized whom she was staring at. _Tifa and Yuffie?_ The thought arced through her mind like an arrow, trailing disbelief and further confusion and doubt. But there could be no denying it: these two women looked exactly like every picture of the Final Fantasy 7 characters she had ever seen. Thorn wondered if this thought had come to Lily as well, and her brown eyes flitted to her fellow fan girl's face. A slight flicker of recognition played in Lily's eyes as she looked at the women, and Thorn was sure that her thoughts had been the same. Also, perhaps it was only the darkness, but there seemed to be a barely-noticeable, ultra-smooth edge on them, reminiscent of the animated luster of CGI.

If her mind was not playing a very convincing and severe trick on her, then the man holding the gun to her head must be—

"Cloud, Vincent, what are you doing? Those two are only kids." The calm voice of the woman who Thorn now knew must be Tifa broke the second-long silence that had allowed for several minutes of thought.

"VINNY. You psychopath! You're pointing a _gun_ at a little kid's friggin' head! And Cloud, what the hell? You look like you're seriously about to slit a teenager's throat with that steel block you call a sword! " Yuffie spoke next, hopping into the air with indignation. Thorn felt rather miffed at being called a little kid (she was, after all, fourteen) but was never the less grateful for the intervention.

—Vincent Valentine.

Thorn could literally feel the fierce glare coming from the man behind and to the left of her burning into her head, eyes that she now knew were scarlet piercing through her like knives. She wanted to say something else, but the feeling that a bullet was about to enter her skull just to simplify things kept her silent.

She could easily see that there was no longer a blade pressing threateningly against Lily's throat. _Why do I get the suspicious, moody bastard who'd prefer to blow my head off with Death Penalty or Cerberus or whatever stupid, cryptically-named gun this guy has now? Fuck…_ After a few more moments, however, Thorn felt the steel—which had just begun to lose its cold feel after being pressed against her temple for a while—leave her skin.

Letting out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, Thorn turned to look her assailant in the face, chocolate eyes meeting crimson ones obstinately. As though mildly surprised by the look on her face, Vincent raised an eyebrow.

"So," said Tifa, breaking the silence once more, "you say there was an earthquake where you were before you came here." Her tone was understanding edged by curiosity. "Then you were just transported here? Any idea how?" Thorn shook her head, while Lily uttered a 'no' in reply. The busty woman frowned in thought. Thorn could hear her murmur, "That's strange…" _ No shit, __**Tifa**_, Thorn thought ruefully, crossing her arms, gloved hands shocking skin with just how cold leather could become.

"What're your names, anyhow?" asked Yuffie. "I'm Yuffie Kisaragi, the most _awesome_ person you'll ever meet and incredible ninja-goddess!" Her constant enthusiasm almost made Thorn smile, and would have were it not for the strange nature of the situation.

"I'm Thorn," Thorn replied at once, "or Crypte, if you're into last names."

"Lily Rimler," her comrade stated simply. Thorn felt like she and her friend were time bombs, waiting to go off into hyper-fan girl spazztime at the fact that both Vincent Valentine and Cloud Strife were standing mere feet away from them as soon as the risk of being shot or beheaded was no longer quite so prominent.

"And yours?" Thorn's eyebrows rose in spite of herself at Lily's words, an expression she wiped from her face quickly. As there was no way to prove that the four Square Enix characters were, in fact, from a video game at the present time, the best plan of action would be to play normal and act as though neither of them spent their days obsessing over them.

"Tifa Lockheart."

"As you know, I'm Yuffie!"

"Cloud Strife."

"…Vincent Valentine…"

"Um, I know you guys think we're all dissolute and intruder-ly, but could we get a little closer to the fire, please? It's cold here…" As Thorn spoke she shivered slightly, running her hands over her bare arms in an effort to chase the cold from them. When the earthquake had hit, Thorn had, obviously, not known that she was about to be thrust through time, space, and apparently reality, into a cold, dark forest that seemed to feature no other human life than that which stood around her, and was therefore not dressed for the outside weather. A black wifebeater hardly guarded against cold.

She saw Tifa send Cloud a look that said quite plainly, _Don't you even. _After a moment, Cloud spoke.

"All right." They moved into the clearing and toward the fire at the center of it. Vincent sat down alone in one place while Tifa, Cloud, and Yuffie sat within a somewhat close viscinity to each other, while Thorn and Lily sat down together apart from the other four. Thorn could feel the others watching her and Lily with eyes full of curiosity and mistrust. From what she could tell, no one but the four AVALANCHE members was around within miles and miles, which would certainly make Thorn's and Lily's appearances odd to them.

"It's late," said Tifa, "even 'intruders' need sleep. How's about a little shut-eye?" There were grunts of assent and a few nods, but as the eyes of Vincent and Cloud slid over the pair of teenagers, both knew that no one, not even Tifa, who had been kind and inviting, would be sleeping soundly tonight…

When dawn pierced the sky, Thorn knew that she must look terrible. Lily and Thorn had not been able to talk to one another about what had happened without the others knowing, or at least arousing further suspicion, which was not what they needed right now. Nevertheless they had spent the night staring at each other, making faces at one another that passed the same message all the time: _OMIGOD IT'S VINNY AND CLOUD AND FUCKING SHIT THEY'RE HOT BUT WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING HERE OMIGOD OMIGOD._

Thorn looked at the four Square Enix characters. Yuffie looked hyper as ever, no visible change to her psyche in the face of strangers showing up in a place where there didn't appear to be a town for many miles. Tifa looked a little tired, but well dispositioned anyway. Cloud looked rather irritable, and the glance he sent Thorn made her sure that there was going to be interrogation done today. Vincent, well, he looked like Vincent: imperturbable in absolute. No particular expression colored his aristocratic features, merely the dark, gothic overtone that black hair, crimson eyes and skin like alabaster afforded a man.

Thorn looked at Lily. She had not yet opened her eyes; she was the type of person who needed her sleep, no matter what awaited her when she _did_ open those blue-gray eyes of hers.

---

Cloud Strife watched the two teenagers carefully, as though expecting them to leap into full attack any minute now. Then again, perhaps he was merely being paranoid—one of them wasn't even awake yet, and the other girl looked smart enough to know how stupid it would be to take on four opponents who were all older and—if her strength matched her size—stronger than she.

The blonde swordsman finished waking himself up, staring into the deadened ashes of last night's fire before rising to his feet. The teenaged brunette was watching him, he could see, apparently waiting for something. She did not look surprised when he walked over to her. Cloud looked down at the tanned face, the wary brown eyes setting the tone for the rest of her features.

"You said your name is Thorn." The sentence was not said like a question, but the girl nodded anyway. Cloud was already about five inches taller than Thorn when they were both standing, but when she sat in his presence he seemed to tower over her—though not as much, Cloud reflected, as would the 6' Vincent—inordinately. She seemed to notice this as well, for she stood, shoving her gloved hands into her pockets as she went.

"So. Cloud. You have questions, I guess." Her words had an oddly resigned air that Cloud did not fully understand. Annoyed, maybe (if Thorn was not feeling grateful that she was still alive.) Curious, afraid, all of these feelings that might have shown themselves in the young teen would have been easily explained in Cloud's mind. But resignation? Wasn't she a little young to be resigned?

"How old are you? Both of you," he said, azure eyes flitting to Lily's sleeping form.

"Fourteen," said Thorn, seemingly in reference to herself. "She's fifteen."

"And your home?" Cloud watched Thorn's face as she paused, her brown eyes growing faintly distant for a moment before she answered.

"Somewhere _far_ away… Don't know how we're gonna get back."

"Where?"

"You wouldn't've heard of it."

"Try me."

"Oakland." Cloud paused.

"All right then." Cloud thought of what to ask next. This approach of mapping out Thorn's character was not going particularly well. All he had learned thus far was that he was speaking to a rather cynical-sounding fourteen-year-old who lived in some God-forsaken place that he had never even heard of called Oakland. Before he had the opportunity to speak, however, Thorn did.

"So. Does everyone who pops up get this _penetrating_ shpeel of questions before being admitted to the presence of the great members of Avalanche?" The manner in which she said this surprised Cloud, and he quirked a brow in an expression borrowed from Vincent.

"No. Only the teenaged ones who come wandering through the trees in the night," he replied. He found a strange kind of satisfaction when Thorn chose to say nothing to this, looking rather defeated. At that moment, the other girl on the ground stirred, her body turning and her eyelids rising to reveal tired eyes.

"Well then," said Thorn, her eyes guarded in such a way that Cloud could not tell even a vague idea of what was going through her mind. "I suppose now is as good a time as any to get going. We're obviously not wanted here, and it's going to be Hell getting home. May as well start now." Cloud's eyebrows drew together as Thorn looked down at her slowly waking friend, and said, "Hey, Lil? You 'wake?" Lily grunted and rubbed her eyes.

"You can't mean to travel on foot to God-knows-where without any food carried in your stomach or otherwise," said Cloud incredulously.

"Well, are _you_ going to give us food? I bet you've got all your provisions carefully measured out for the trip." Cloud said nothing, and fought the urge to look at his feet. This was true, and he had not expected the close-enough-to child to think this way. Thorn seemed to take his silence as an affirmative, for she said, "There. So what's left to do?" Glancing at her friend, who was beginning to rise, she said, "Guess we're takin' off, Lil." Lily's eyes trailed over Cloud, Vincent, Yuffie and Tifa (all of whom were now paying close attention) and nodded.

Thorn began to walk away from the blonde swordsman. However, he caught her by the wrist before he knew what he was doing. Cloud's gloved fingers tightened into a grip that was sure not to be painful, but that which would not be easily thrown off by the fourteen-year-old.

"Let go," Thorn said, looking from Cloud's hand to his eyes, a true frown taking up residence on her face. When Cloud did not, she placed a hand on his and made an attempt at prying it off. This made no difference, however.

"If you leave on your own now, you're most likely going to die of starvation wandering around the woods in circles." Cloud did not let go. "You can't go anywhere yet."

Thorn's eyes lowered to the ground for a moment, and she seemed to bristle with fury. When she next spoke, it was in a voice that Cloud knew did not belong to her. She looked up at Cloud, the umber of her almond-shaped eyes convulsing, bleeding poison blue and green as Thorn's pupils quivered, then turned into slits.

"_I said_, let me go, _puppet,_" she hissed vehemently, her eyes narrowing dangerously. Cloud was so shocked at what he saw and heard that his grip on her early forearm loosened, and she snatched back her limb. The AVALANCHE member stared into the poisoned eyes, the same as those of a twice-defeated foe, marveling at the word _puppet._

Tifa and Yuffie's mouths had both dropped open in disbelief. Vincent had been watching with one hand on his holstered weapon, and was now beginning to draw it out for the second time since meeting the two girls. Thorn blinked, the blue and green draining from her eyes, leaving only brown in their places, pupils returning to normal. For a moment Cloud said nothing, still shocked at having seen the venomous mako eyes of Sephiroth in a teenaged girl.

---

Thorn blinked, and looked at the others around her. Cloud had released his grip on her, which she was thankful for, but he was now eyeing her with a sort of dumbstruck horror. As she looked at the other AVALANCHE members, she saw that Tifa and Yuffie were staring with what looked like fear. What disturbed her even more was the sight of Vincent holstering his gun, and the shadow of recognition in his eyes. Why had he had it out in the first place? Why had she not noticed? Why was _everyone_ staring at her as though _she _had pulled a gun and waved it around in Cloud's goddamn face? Turning to her friend, she saw Lily looking at her with a kind of fascinated confusion.

_When did I become so intimidating? Jesus…_ she thought, confused now.

"Um… guys? Someone talk to me. I feel like some kind of new exhibit at a museum with all of you staring at me like that." Vincent seemed like the first to recover from the shocked silence, for which Thorn was grateful so that she didn't have to look at the expression on Cloud's face any longer. He looked as though he were feeling terrified, murderous and uncertain all at once.

"Thorn. You and Lily will stay. You will not move." It was an order, and in all the confusion being produced by her brain, Thorn heard that order, and nothing in her being wanted to disobey it in this moment. She nodded wordlessly, staring intently at Vincent as he turned his attention to Cloud.

"Strife." Cloud's last name was spoken curtly, and Thorn was forced to look into his cerulean eyes as he looked at her for another moment, then wrenched his cold gaze away from her and turned away, walking off a short ways where Vincent already waited to speak with him, a mere glance bringing the two women.

---

The four AVALANCHE members drew together, Cloud sending glances over his shoulder at Thorn all the while. Even Yuffie knew that this was a _very_ serious moment.

"Cloud, stop that," said Tifa shakily, with regards to the looks Cloud was sending the teenager.

"You all saw—"

"We do not necessarily know what it means."

"_I _know exactly what it means. She's like them: Kadaj and the others."

"No, she is not, Cloud," Vincent said in an almost reprimanding tone of voice. "First and foremost, whatever it is that we saw was momentary, fading almost immediately. She also," and here Vincent spared a glance at the confused girl, "appears not to know what she has displayed."

"All we can do is keep her for now," said Tifa. "Until we know more." Her face was worried, and her eyes flitted from Thorn to Cloud and back several times. Cloud glared at them all, but the most potent glare was reserved for Thorn.

"No one says a word," said Vincent, staring hard at Cloud. They all nodded, and Yuffie bit her lip. Whatever was said there, even Tifa had a cold, detached look for Thorn when they returned to the main part of the clearing.

"All right, who's hungry?" said Tifa without another word on what had just happened. "Lily—good, you're _really_ awake now. Breakfast?"


	2. Not quite the beginning

Kamikaze Moogle

Disclaimer: Still not mine. I'll take Vinnie any day, though.

_Chapter Two_

Breakfast that morning was eaten mostly in silence, with all of the AVALANCHE members casting Thorn cold, wary looks. Thorn and Lily sat together on one side of the briefly renewed fire, with the four Square Enix characters spread across the other side. Finally Thorn couldn't take it anymore.

"Lil, those guys ain't sayin' anythin'. What the hell'd I _do_ that's got 'em all, you know…like _that._" She had looked over at a certain blonde warrior just in time to catch an icy, calculating stare, which she returned with an annoyed widening of the eyes and a questioning swivel of the head.

"Well, you called Cloud a puppet, for one thing. What was up with that?"

"I called him a _puppet_? What the hell?" Thorn paused, thinking about when anger had flared in her chest, the words she had spat fiercely at Cloud. "All I said was 'I said, let me go…'"

"How do you not remember what you said, Chicken? And you said it weird; your voice got all low and, I dunno, _evil_-sounding. I could barely hear you. I mean, I didn't see your face when you said it, so I mean, maybe you just looked really scary, I dunno. But I bet Cloud didn't get any happy recollections out of being called a puppet."

"I don't understand… I don't remember saying anything like that at all." Thorn picked at her food uselessly, finding that even after not eating for a good while, she was not very hungry just now, not very hungry at all.

"Thorn, Lily! We're moving on; let's go." Yuffie looked the most amiable with regard to the two teenagers of the four Square Enix people, and it was she who called them to their feet. The two girls nodded and crossed the clearing, only now realizing the chill in the morning air. They both shivered lightly.

"Here, take these," said Tifa, her eyes glazing over in what looked like an attempt not to appear so cold. Out of a bag on her shoulder she drew two denim jackets, which she tossed to each of them. Both murmured their thanks as they pulled the thin articles of clothing over themselves. Thorn saw the look that went from Cloud to Tifa, who shrugged and kept walking.

"Thorn, Lily, you will be in the middle of all of us," Vincent said suddenly as they left the clearing into denser forest.

"How come?" asked Thorn, her eyebrows creasing into a slight frown.

"The idea is to put competent fighters at either end of the group so that defenses are high on both sides," he explained patiently. Shrugging, Thorn and Lily moved past Cloud and Tifa to the middle, so that they were between Vincent and Yuffie and Cloud and Tifa (Cloud and Tifa being at the front, Yuffie and Vincent at the back.) When all this was sorted, they moved on, making their way through the incredibly close-set trees in silence.

---

Vincent shook his head as he watched Thorn and Lily turn their backs on him to face the front and keep walking. What had happened back in that clearing had Cloud of definite edge, as well it should, which put Tifa on edge, and with two members of AVALANCHE on edge and he, Vincent, who did not show this fact about himself as openly as the former two, the general aura of on-edged-ness seemed to rub off on Yuffie, who was fiddling and fussing with her shuriken pouch as they went along in a frazzled manner, something Vincent was not used to seeing in the young shinobi.

The hours passed uneventfully, no one truly wanting to break the tense silence that had fallen among the six people. The sun moved slowly overhead, casting dappled bits of green light along the ground, interspersed with shadows and real sunlight. The minutes seemed to stretch ages, hours eons. Vincent did not know how this was affecting the others, but to him, it was only normal for time to stretch indefinitely like this, and it was only by accepting it and plowing on that one survived in the endless flow of time.

Around noon they all stopped to eat lunch, which Tifa took it upon herself to cook. Other than nods of thanks, the six travelers mostly ignored one another, not daring to break the inestimable quiet that was permeated only by the natural sounds of the forest. Then it was onward once more, walking all day until night fell over the unchanging landscape. This time Vincent decided to give Tifa a break and went about creating some version of a stew. Soon enough bowls were delivered wordlessly. When he gave Thorn hers, he watched her mahogany eyes as she looked at him for a moment that lasted several. Even Vincent could not guess what was in the child's stare as she nodded to him and watched him go back to his own food.

After he finished eating, Vincent stood, walking out of the firelight and retrieving a phone from one of the unfathomable pockets on his person. Flipping it open, his human hand dialed swiftly, lifting the phone to his ear under layers of long black hair. The sound of ringing reached his eardrums, until…

"'Lo?"

"Cid."

"Hey, Gloom-N-Doom! Whadoya want?"

"Complications have arisen. We need you to come here. Soon."

"Well, where the hell are ya?" Vincent ignored Cid's crude-sounding voice and replied.

"About twenty miles east of you."

"Still in that damned forest! Ya fuckin' vamp, how d'ya expect me ta come'n get ya if yer ass is still under all them trees?"

"You are the pilot, Highwind; be creative," Vincent said, again ignoring the needless cursing always involved in a conversation with Cid. "You know very well that I would not call you for no good reason. Make it happen." With that, Vincent hung up before Cid could argue any further, making his way back into the firelight and earshot of the others situated there. Cloud sent him a questioning look, which Vincent replied to by allowing a glimpse of his phone to be seen by the blonde as it disappeared back into the folds of his cloak. Cloud raised his eyebrows, then nodded in comprehension. He murmured something to Tifa and Yuffie.

---

Thorn awoke to the sound of whirring and running motors, to the feeling of Lily's hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently awake. She blinked in confusion, rubbing her eyes and standing up quickly.

"Whuzzgoinon?" she muttered, half-asleep for all she was on her feet. Her eyes caught a glimpse of a huge airship through the tops of the trees, and her eyes widened.

"They called Cid?" she said. Lily widened her eyes warningly as if to say 'shut up!' Vincent, who was somewhat nearby, seemed to catch part of what she said, but not all of it, because he asked, "What did you say?"

"I—nothing, I just said that thing's so big," Thorn replied quickly, eyes rising to the airship once more. Vincent watched her for a moment, then resumed watching Cid's airship hover over them. A long rope ladder descended, ending about four feet off the ground. High in the sky through a gap in the trees, Thorn could see faces, small from distance, looking out.

"Thorn, Lily, come on." Yuffie looked with an apprehensive expression at the waiting air born mode of transportation, and Thorn suddenly remembered that Yuffie was a person who suffered from motion sickness. Cloud and Tifa were already pulling themselves up the ladder, Cloud jumping the last several feet from the ladder and disappearing into the airship. Vincent didn't bother with the ladder but flew up, leaving Yuffie, Lily, and Thorn to climb the ladder quickly, dodging trees as the rope swung precariously. By the time they were all in the aircraft, the pilot had apparently lost patience and was flying away from the abandoned spot without waiting for the youngest new passengers to be all the way inside.

When Thorn looked around, she saw most of AVALANCHE that she could think of assembled. Nanaki (or Red XIII,) sat on his haunches next to Cait Sith, watching the new arrivals. Up at the controls, Thorn recognized Cid Highwind piloting the Shera. Her eyes roved over the various Square Enix characters, and she realized that one person was not here. Barret Wallace, original leader of AVALANCHE from way back when—was he perhaps with Marlene and Denzel? From what Thorn could tell so far, she and Lily had entered the timeline sometime after Advent Children and before Dirge of Cerberus.

"Who are you?" asked Nanaki, flaming tail flitting from side to side. The question was valid, though not harsh or suspicious, merely curious.

"That's Thorn," said Lily, "and I'm Lily."

"They were," Tifa paused for the merest of moments as she explained why Thorn and Lily were there, her wine-colored eyes trailing over the pair and lingering on Thorn, "stranded, so we brought them along."

Thorn saw the look that cut from Cid to Vincent, and Thorn knew that Tifa's words were not all that would be said on the matter. She almost did not hear Tifa when she said, "Yuffie, will you show Thorn and Lily to their rooms so they can get comfortable?" Surprised, Thorn looked at Yuffie, who seemed to realize that this was merely a way to clear both Thorn and Lily from the room the same way she had, and said, "Uh, sure, all right." Yuffie looked at the two teenagers.

"Come on," she said, "this way." Thorn spared a glance for the rest of AVALANCHE before following the cheerful ninja, wondering how many times before the shinobi had been _falsely_ cheerful.

---

Once Yuffie, Thorn, and Lily had left the room, Cid broke his briefly tactful silence.

"All right, vamp. Out with it. Why'd you call, and what's with the kids?" Vincent turned to him, glancing over at Cloud before speaking.

"I called, you, Cid, because I decided that traveling twenty more miles in the company of those two in a forrested, remote area would put the safety of those involved in undue jeopardy."

"How'd ya figure that loadda shit?" Cid replied.

"They both have a strange feel about them," Nanaki said pensively, "as though they do not belong here, but they do not seem dangerous."

"This is true," said Vincent, "but there is a more pressing possible problem in the youngest of the two, Thorn."

"Yesterday morning, when Cloud was talking to Thorn, something happened," Tifa chimed in, concerned burgundy eyes resting resolutely on Cloud. "There was a moment when she wasn't really _Thorn_, if that makes sense." The meaning of Tifa's words was apparently lost on Cid.

"_Na_, it don't make n'damn sense. Hey, chocobo-boy! What happened?"

"Her eyes changed," said Cloud, refusing to look at anyone and speaking in a deadened tone of voice. "She called me puppet and her eyes changed…into _his_." When he said these words, Cloud's mouth tightened, and everyone could see his grip on the support rail in his hand tighten considerably.

"No fuckin' way! That's damn crazy talk right there," said Cid. "How in the hell—"

"We do not know," Vincent interrupted Cid. "But we must watch her carefully. She appears not to know what happened, and we have not informed her."

---

Thorn Crypte was a fan girl. A fan girl who scorned all boy-crazy/boy-worshipping behavior in real, flesh and blood life, but a fan girl nevertheless. As a straight fan girl, Thorn had memorized most of the common mannerisms and characteristics of nearly all Advent Children males, as well as whatever in-depth information was available on them. This was why it did not surprise her when one of her favorite bishis, Vincent Valentine, turned out to be a very impersonal, straightforward sort of person. Much as Thorn had fantasized about any alternate reality where she somehow ended up in the same universe as a living, breathing Vincent, and how she would probably die within minutes of entering that reality because she had actually so profaned as to hug Vincent, she knew she would never do it. Never even make an attempt.

Because it is much harder to be a fan girl of someone who you have been in the same room with, however much you adore their persona.

Vincent's behavior did not surprise her, but Cloud's did. At the end of Advent Children, it had seemed that Cloud's annoying Emo thing was over; geostigma was gone, his feelings of regret and guilt over Aerith mostly abated. Emoness aside, the fact that Cloud looked at her as though he wished her dead every time they shared a room, even for the shortest of moments, disturbed Thorn greatly. He had not spoken to her since the first morning of their acquaintance, and in all honesty, Thorn was rather afraid of what he _would _say if he did speak.

No one was telling her anything either, and so as Thorn looked out over the railing of the outside deck of the Shera, she turned over the events again and again in her mind, trying to understand why she had called Cloud a puppet and not remembered a thing about it.

_Well, the last person who called him a puppet was Sephy, and he manipulated Cloud into giving him the black materia_, Thorn thought. She could understand why Cloud was furious, but why was everyone looking at her with a frosty wariness, along with a flicker of fear? A word could not instill such fear on its own.

_Everyone is talking, talking, but no one is talking to __**me**_ Thorn thought angrily. The only exception to this rule was Lily, who was behaving normally around Thorn, if a little worried, but completely open. _God damn it, don't __**I **__deserve to know why Cid keeps watching me like he's waiting for me to do something? Why Tifa seems like she's tiptoeing around Cloud and me? Don't __**I **__get a say?_

And without warning, the injustice of it ignited a new flame of anger within Thorn, dangerous and more deadly than she had ever known. Pure, unadulterated fury flowed through her unexpectedly, so much that the thing that had angered her flew out of perspective.

Thorn's hands on the railing clenched over the carved wood, teeth gritting and breath catching in her throat. It took effort—too much effort—to breathe, hatred and wrath blocking her airway. Her eyes turned poisoned blue and green once more, cruel slits replacing her human pupils. Thorn's hands squeezed down on the railing so hard that she could feel it begin to crack and splinter beneath her gloved hands, exposed fingers refusing to release their vice grip.

"Thorn!" Her name was spoken sharply, distracting her for a split second from her rage. This split second was all her body needed, however, to calm the fierce anger within her, snuffing the fire back into dormant ashes. Thorn's restored brown eyes followed the voice, looking over her shoulder at the tall, cloaked frame of the man Thorn knew could only be Vincent. His eyes rested pointedly on her right hand, which was not hidden by Thorn's body like her left one. The wood under her fingers had not broken apart, but several long cracks ran from where she had clamped down on it. Thorn lifted her hands, which had not been cut, gazing at the leather palms of her fingerless gloves instead of at Vincent. This remained so even when she finally spoke to him.

"Vincent," she said, "why isn't anyone telling _me_?" When Vincent did not reply, Thorn turned, leaning back against the splintered railing and staring at the pale man.

"Why are all of you watching me, and not _talking_ to me? I sleep in the blackness when I'm tired, but that doesn't mean I like to be left in the dark." Vincent did not answer her question, but he did speak, and even that was somewhat comforting to Thorn, that she had pulled him into talking to her.

"I can think of nothing worse to call Cloud Strife than 'puppet.' The reminder it poses is the surest way to instill anger in that man I know. I believe that there are two reasons why _you _are not feeling great pain at this moment at Cloud's hand: you are a child, as meager an incentive not to harm you as that may be, and that you shocked him so badly that his reasoning caught up with, and overpowered, his immediate desire to kill you." Vincent watched Thorn's inscrutable face acknowledge what he had said.

"I didn't mean to," Thorn said, "I don't even remember it." She noticed Vincent nod, seemingly deep in thought. Unable to bear this subject any longer, particularly if she was still getting neither relief nor answers, Thorn cast around for something else to say, knowing that conversation with this particular Square Enix character was always rather doomed anyway. Yet another reason fic writers across the world called him Gloom'n'Doom.

"So, where are we going, anyway?" she said, glancing out into the sky that surrounded them, then back at Vincent.

"Our objective in the forest was reached; Cid will take Cloud and Tifa back to their home, and, if their ever-persistant desire for house guests prevails, I imagine that a few others may join them. I will also be leaving the ship at the first opportunity, to save our pilot the trouble of flying where I must go—"

"Fine, where am _I _going, then?" Thorn interrupted. "Me and Lily. That's what I meant."

"That is yet to be seen."

"Well then. When the happy gang figures it out, you lemme know, mkay?" Thorn said, sarcasm lacing her words. She walked away, past Vincent and away from the deck, toward her room, getting the distinct impression that if Vincent were the type of person who actually laughed openly, he would have chuckled at her. The odd thing was that Thorn wasn't sure whether this irked her or made her feel lighter of heart.


	3. Beginning' shouldn't be here but it is

Kamikaze Moogle

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII, and I am most certainly not on crack. GOD people!

_Chapter Three_

Lily watched as the only non-Square Enix-created person on the Shera came toward her on the little awning that rested outside their rooms, which were right next to each other. She was in the process of tying back her wild golden curls into a ponytail when Thorn sidled up to her, hooking a finger into one of Lily's belt loops out of habit.

"I'll always think that's weird," said Lily offhandedly, putting an arm over her younger friend's shoulders.

"I know. But I'll always think you're weird, so it balances out." Thorn gave the first genuine grin Lily had seen on her since the incident with Cloud. It gladdened Lily to see this sign of actual life in the short girl.

"So get this," Thorn said. "We're on bishi-boat with_ Vinny_ and _Cloud _the_ emo-boy._"

"The two most prolific angsters in the whole damn game!" Lily replied, grinning back. "But Chicken, have you completely lost all fangirl sense? It's not a bishi-boat unless there are _at least _a couple Remants, if not Sephy, and we need—"

"I know, I know, we need some Turks and Reeve and Rufus and all those guys. Fine. So it's a bishi-boatstarter-set or somethingBut we have Vinny and Wanna-be Vinny on the same airship. I mean, like, flesh'n blood. Not to mention Yuffie. I mean, you _know_ Navi would spaz if she could see Yuff." Thorn was referring to hers and Lily's mutual brotha-from-anotha-motha. "Top that at some dumb gaming convention." There was a pause in which both girls reflected both that neither of them had ever _been_ to a gaming convention, and that Navi should really have come along with them to this reality. "Lame cosplayers—we get to see the real ones."

"Question is, are we ever gonna get to see the lame cosplayers again," said Lily, with a concerned expression on her face. "We don't even know how the hell we ended up in eff-eff-seven bizarro world to begin with. How're we gonna get back into normal bizarro world?" At the mention of this, Thorn seemed to lapse into thought.

"I saw a lot of, you know, _streaming_ pale green light. Like thousands of teeny strings, y'know?" she said, finally.

"Yeah, I saw that too. No idea what it was, though. Maybe a meteor shower?"

"Hmm. I talked to Vincent."

"'Bout what?"

"Where we're gonna go."

"And?"

"Didn't say. You know how he is. 'Yet to be seen,' apparently," replied Thorn, shrugging her shoulders. The vampiric-looking man was the most levelheaded in times of crisis, but when it came to logistical things in the calm tone of everyday life, the gunslinger definitely had his shortcomings.

"Some help that is," Lily said, voicing what they had both been thinking. It was nice, to share a lone moment of frustration, Thorn could not help but think, and helped to ease the knot of unease that had tied and tangled its way around her heart. Silence stretched comfortably between the pair, each staring dazedly into the blue-skied distance.

"I feel really chill," said Lily softly, still staring off into the distance.

"I'm totally gonna write a fic about all this when we get back home, y'know," said Thorn. "Wish I had my laptop with me."

"When?" said Lily.

"Yeah, when," said Thorn. "There can't be an if. There's no way we can be stuck in a world that until a couple days ago we didn't think existed for the rest of our lives."

"Why not?" It was an odd reversal of roles, Lily contemplated. Neither of them were exactly dreamy little optimists, but Thorn had always been the more cynical of the two. Yet here they were, in some game's reality, Thorn insisting that there was no _if_ to the matter, and Lily stating that perhaps there might be no _when_. Thorn clearly had no answer for Lily, but there was desperation in her brown eyes that Lily had never seen before, so she decided not to pursue the matter.

"Anyway, if you wrote a fic about all this, everyone would just pass it off as one of those lame fics where the Oh-Sees are self-inserts of stupid fangirls, not realizing that they are inadvertently passing up something _so _much better," Lily said, a smile tugging at her lips. Thorn punched her lightly on the shoulder.

"Prob'ly right," Thorn said, shrugging.


	4. Now this is just ridiculous

Kamikaze Moogle

Disclaimer: I hate writing disclaimers. They consume my life and turn me into a disclaimer zombie. Gaaah...brains.

_Chapter Four_

"And just _why_ precisely am I not _allowed_ to walk around at night _alone?_" The annoyed snarls of a certain brunette teenager were heard all across the Shera, causing heads to turn and sighs to be put out.

"'Cause it ain't _safe!_" Cid was more than able to match the racket she caused.

"HOW EXACTLY IS IT NOT _FUCKING_ SAFE? I'm _fourteen_, not _five_! We're on a goddamn _airship_, so WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN? What, am I going to be abducted by a wind spirit or something?"

"I'M THE GODDAMN CAPTAIN, YA BRAT, AND YA'LL DO AS I SAY, OR YA CAN GET THE FUCK OFF MY SHIP!" bellowed Cid, "Ya're worse than that spoiled klepto what calls 'erself a fighter!"

Thorn glared furiously at Cid. This was absolutely ridiculous! She had been walking around the deck, watching the moon, alone _like everybody else was_, and here she was being told not to by a man who was more foul-mouthed than she, (which, she had been told by some, would be a record if ever it happened.) Fuming, she opened her mouth once more, fully prepared to continue arguing her case, when she was cut off by a certain pilot.

"I don't wanna hear shit about it," said Cid, with a resolute shake of his head. "An' if you don't like it, ya can jump and tuh Hell with ya." Cid turned away from her, ignoring her firmly. It was more than just an indignant, irate feeling in Thorn now; it was real anger, pulsing and pounding in her veins. Before she understood what was happening, hateful venom was coursing through her, loathing and odium pouring out of her eyes, which had become poisoned and cruel once more.

"I'll _do_ as I _please_, Highwind," she said, in a deadly voice steeped in viciousness. Before Cid had even turned to face her, cursing, she heard the trace of a movement behind her. And before she knew it, the press of cold claws on her forearm shocked her skin, and Thorn felt her arm twisted behind her back swiftly in the same movement as she was shoved into a wall, held fast. Thorn turned her head, glaring with the easy malevolence that came with her even stare.

"Holy fuck! Thorn, your eyes!" The words did not come from Vincent, but from a girl, a girl, who for a moment Thorn didn't even recognize. A girl taller than she, with curly dirty blonde hair and blue-gray eyes much softer than hers. Lily. Thorn's own eyes widened, hatred and malice draining from them to be replaced by shock and fear, as well as natural color. Her breathing was fast and unsteady. For a moment, Thorn looked like a child as her eyes flitted about wildly, settling fearfully on Vincent. Then she looked as she almost always did, but for a flicker of the feeling that had just dominated.

"Vincent, lemme go; that hurts," she said, knowing better than to struggle against the crimson-eyed man's vice grip—only pain waited down that road. Vincent held her there for another moment or two, watching her balefully, before releasing her roughly. He distanced himself from her quickly, eyeing her with something between disdain and disgust.

Thorn looked at the three other people in the room, her eyes resting the longest on Lily.

"Back to your rooms," Vincent said coldly, eyes on the pair of teenagers. "Now." Neither girl thought to argue.

---

Vincent watched as the two cleared the room in record time, eyes snapping back to Cid immediately afterward. Cid knew what Vincent was going to say, for he nodded and settled the steering mechanism on to float.

"I'll round up Chocobo-head an' the others," he said, passing the cloaked man.

"I will only be a moment," said Vincent, watching the foul-mouthed pilot leave. The moment he was alone, Vincent lowered his head to hang pointed at the floor, hands at his sides closing into fists. The ex-Turk stood there for a matter of seconds, allowing his fingers to uncurl slightly before clenching them back together once more. Crimson eyes closed, simmering in the tumult of thoughts that threatened to overwhelm his calm, analytical thinking.

After another few seconds, Vincent's eyes opened once more, his hands loosening to their usual state. Raising his head, his imperturbable air returned as easily as it had slipped away for the merest of moments.

---

Lily walked swiftly out of the room, eyes resolutely on her friend. She was disturbed by what she had seen; even contacts could not change the shape of your pupil, and switching back so quickly ruled out the idea anyway. Those eyes she had seen in her best friend in the whole world were those she had seen all too often in fan art and posters, and they should never have appeared in Thorn. How had Thorn become infected by "the Sephiroth gene," as it were?

Lily felt Thorn's hand slip into hers, and she allowed it to stay there, though she responded only minimally. She was not afraid of her friend, as perhaps she should have been, but something in that back of her mind plagued her, as though besides the obvious problem there was something she had overlooked. Lily was the kind of person who just _got _things. She might forget something or not realize it, but then it would all just _click_, and she would understand everything in a second.

They traversed the space between the control deck and their rooms fairly quickly (the way there included an open deck, stairs, and a small awning where their neighboring doors stood. The wood under Lily's feet gave a solid, comforting feel, even if it_ was _only wood.

There was no question about the two separating—it went without question that the two crossed into Lily's room, Lily's expression changing to disbelief. Thorn just asked her question.

"Okay, so Lil. What about my eyes? What was up with that?" Lily had to take a deep breath in order not to explode by this point.

"I get why they're so _rawr_ with you," she said. "It's 'cause whenever _you_ get _rawr_, your eyes go all Sephy-like. I'm serious. If you like, don't remember, this is probably why. You get Sephy eyes when you're pissed."

"What the crap? No way," said Thorn, but Lily knew that Thorn was not so unperceptive to think that she would lie about something like this. Her face sobered very quickly, and she said, "Well, what do we do, then?"

"I think you should try not getting mad too much," Lily said dryly, knowing how insubstantial a solution this sounded. "How the hell should I know? Everyone else feels ready to chop, blow off, or in some other way remove your head—"

"Gee, thanks…"

"—but they're not gonna, 'cause they need to know what's up with you. But I just can't figure out how it _happened_. I mean, neither'a us're _from_ around here, y'know? It doesn't make any sense."

"Oh, and this is the only thing that doesn't make sense?" said Thorn.

"You know what I mean," Lily said, pacing her room. The two sank into constrained silence. Lily remained pacing, trying to think more clearly as Thorn leaned against the wall, watching her. This went on for almost a minute before Thorn said, "I _feel_ like I'm in a shitty fic. Ya know, the dumb ones where they try'n' insert the Oh-See into some kinda funky situation which leads to everyone falling in love with them. Oh, don't tell me, I'm Sephiroth's daughter, aren't I?"

"Is that all this is to you?" said Lily, almost incredulous. "It's not just fandom anymore, Thorn. We're really here, and something is _really_ wrong. Something's happening, and it's not good."

They were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door, followed by another distant knock, which must have been on Thorn's door. Lily's head snapped to the side to look at the closed door, then to Thorn, whose eyebrows had drawn together in a slight frown that indicated to Lily that her friend was curious.

Lily strode forward, followed by Thorn, and opened the door. The sight that greeted her was a man, about half a foot taller than she. He stood aside for Lily and Thorn to exit the room, which they did. Lily watched Vincent rather apprehensively, wondering what he was about to tell them. If he was surprised that she and Thorn were in the same room, his face didn't show it.

"It has been decided," he began, "that the two of you will accompany Cloud and Tifa to Seventh Heaven, as will I."

"Isn't anyone else coming too?" said Lily, without thinking. Vincent appeared not to read too much into this and merely replied with a curt 'no.'

"Then why're you?" asked Lily. _Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose?_ she went on, within the confines of her own mind. _I mean, it seems obvious he's coming to keep an eye on Thorn, and sure, Vinny's more than enough to take care of her if things get outta hand (as is Cloud) but this seems like a pretty big problem. Shouldn't everyone stick around?_

"Because they've all got lives, a'course," said Thorn, cutting into Lily's thoughts.

"In essence, yes," said Vincent, crimson eyes flitting to Thorn. Lily resisted the urge to smack her palm to her forehead. _No DUH they all have lives… lives that could end if_ _this turns out bad…_

"VINNY! What're ya talkin' 'bout?" It was Yuffie's voice. Lily watched as Vincent turned to look at the ninja who was behind him, accompanied by Tifa. "The rest of us wanna hang with y'all too!"

"Sorry, Vincent," Tifa said, looking a bit guilty for having to correct the seemingly-ageless man. "After you came to tell these two, we all decided that it'd be nice to have everyone around; you know, spend some time together." Lily had the distinct impression that if Vincent had been, well, a lot less Vincent-ish, he would have rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"I stand corrected," he said dryly, looking at the two teenagers once more. "_Apparently_, all of AVALANCHE will be depositing itself at Seventh Heaven." Lily had to smile at the look on his face. It seemed that the prospect of sharing a building with the likes of them was either revolting or frightening—or both.

"Cool," said Thorn—Lily could only guess that her friend was trying not to think about the reason _why_ this was all happening—"Party at Cloud and Teef's!"


	5. BOOZE

Kamikaze Moogle

_Chapter Five_

Ah, hot water felt good. Actually, any water felt good. A mother-fucking _shower_ felt good. Even before flung into the Final Fantasy reality, Thorn had felt due for a shower. Now, Thorn thought of herself as a fairly clean person. Maybe she didn't wash her hands every time she went to the bathroom, but she did when it mattered, and she liked to bathe pretty much every day, although she often slipped and ended up doing it every _other_ day. Some people thought that was disgusting. Thorn had a very blasé approach to cleanliness, actually.

But by this point, it was getting ridiculous. She hadn't gone this long without a shower since she was eight and at summer camp—during which the showers all broke and refused to work other than to spew black water for a week and a half. Two days in the woods and another two on an airship—everyone had been too tense to even _think _to offer the choice to bathe during that time—made five days straight without a shower. And Thorn felt gross. Her hair was oily, her skin saturated and flaking at the same time from having not been washed, and worst of all, her teeth had a gritty, slick feel when she ran her tongue over them. _Gross._

Thorn sighed as she leaned against the stall shower wall. She just stood there for a moment before she got a move on. She knew others were waiting for the shower as well, and Thorn really didn't want to be the bitch who hogged the shower on top of being the crazy Sephy-fied kid. No one liked the bitch who hogged the shower. Not cool. She set about her hair first, and thankfully it _was_ short.

Some minutes later, the short teenager was out of the shower, towel wrapped carefully around her torso in a kind of white terry cloth dress type thing that ended around her upper calves. Thorn had almost decided against changing her clothes while still in the bathroom, but reconsidered when she thought about the sheer number of _fictional _characters were hanging around—and the idea of Cid possibly seeing her in a towel dress was enough to deter her from walking the short distance between the bathroom and the room she would be staying in.

Tifa, as annoyingly kind as she was, had insisted on washing her dirty clothes, and after some deliberation on the matter, it had eventually been Yuffie who lent her some clothes. The eighteen-year-old ninja was surprisingly close to Thorn's size in most respects, though Thorn was rather sturdier than the lean young woman looked. However, this particular style of clothing wasn't really Thorn's.

Her eyes roved disparagingly over what she found herself wearing minutes later, her short brown hair a towel-dried mess. Yuffie appeared _only_ to own shorts, because here she stood in a pair of black cut-offs and a gray sleeveless top. Cut-offs… What the _hell_. Whatever.

After gathering what little she had brought with her to the bathroom that she wasn't already wearing, she opened the bathroom door. As no one was currently waiting right outside, she called through the upstairs portion of Seventh Heaven.

"BATHROOM'S FREEEEEE!" The result was instantaneous.

"MY TURN!" bellowed a female voice. Yuffie came flying up the stairs in seconds, almost as quickly as Thorn had when Lily had done with the shower. Thorn dodged the eighteen-year-old, narrowly avoiding being run over by someone much slimmer than herself. She managed to make her way back to the room she had been assigned.

Thorn's eyes swept the room, finally landing on her best friend. Owing to the fact that many people were now staying in upstairs Seventh Heaven, the two teenagers had to share a room. It wasn't that big of a deal; the bed was large, and they had shared a smaller one before when sleeping at each other's houses when futons were not available. In fact, Thorn thought to herself, after taking in the room and the balcony outside, the room was larger than both of theirs.

_Wait, no. My room's big now…_ Thorn had to remind herself. She and her mother had just recently moved into a much larger house than the one they had lived in for the last nine years. The fourteen-year-old kept having to tell herself that _no_, she most certainly did not live in a one-bedroom cottage any longer with her mom, four cats, and a demonic macaw. Amusing almost. She had not lived there for a week, and here she might never see any of it—or _them _back at home—again. Thorn forced her thoughts away from this matter, though.

It was nighttime now. They had arrived at Seventh Heaven about a day and change after the little conversation involving the resident angst-maniac, Tifa, and Yuffie. By this point everyone had gotten his or her go at a shower, leaving Thorn in particular feeling especially refreshed. Thorn and Lily had been chilling out in the room they shared since they'd gotten there, when they heard a knock on the door.

"Mmm?" Thorn said out of habit. The only person who ever really knocked at her door consistently in her life was her mother, and this was what she normally said to indicate someone could enter.

Tifa opened the door and entered. The maternal woman smiled at them as warmly as possible, though Thorn could see an edge of worry in her eyes, chased into the corners by general kindness. For all many people within the extent of fandom ragged on and on about Tifa being too into Cloud or too romantic or too big-boobed or whatever it was, she really did care, even about annoying teenagers who show up in remote areas. Thorn could see it.

"Hey, you two. Dinner's about ready downstairs, just so you know. Come on down when you're ready." She turned to go, but Thorn and Lily were already at her heels.

"We're coming," Thorn said, not having realized how hungry she was. She caught the sight of a small smile tugging at Tifa's lips, and knew that the woman did not resent her. Well, that much was good. Judging by the fact that in _Advent Children_ Tifa had owned Loz and that Cloud hadn't, Tifa was stronger with them fists than Cloud with his oversized sword.

The closed sign was the first thing that caught Thorn's eye as they entered the closed bar that they were using as a dining room. The rest of AVALANCHE was already there, though not seated. With a glance, Tifa hooked Cloud into pushing together about four tables for her, and they each found a seat. It ended up that Cloud and Vincent wound up taking opposite heads of the table. Tifa wound up between Cloud and Cid. An unsuspecting Thorn found herself sandwiched between Barret, Marlene, and Denzel (the two younger children being squished hard enough together to count as one person on a bench-like seat on one end of the table. The experience was scarring to say the least. What was worse was the fact that Lily was sitting calmly at Vincent's left, was looking at Thorn as though she were putting all her efforts into not laughing. Thorn cast a death glare in her direction.

Yuffie was grinning at everyone. She apparently had no qualms over where she was sitting. Like Lily, the shinobi was sitting next to Vincent, only at his right instead of left, and was casually trying to push silverware up his sleeve. Her mission was being interrupted repeatedly as Vincent gave his wrist routine flicks to deflect Yuffie's fork's path. However, every time she failed, Yuffie stuck out her tongue at him and tried again.

Finally the actual eating part started, and Denzel and Marlene were forced to give Thorn some more room to unplaster herself from Barret's side. Traumatized, Thorn shuddered and took a plate of potatoes offered to her by a grudgingly unresentful looking Cloud with a grateful nod.

---

Dinner had been eaten, small children had been put to bed, and the booze had come out. Thankfully, it had not taken much talking to convince the adults that Lily and Thorn were _beyond_ the age of being sent to bed. Thorn was now glaring at Yuffie with jealousy blazing in her eyes. Yuffie, at eightteen, had finally managed to surpass Tifa's firm no-alcohol-for-minors rule and was downing sake like a vampire guzzles blood.

"But Tifa, just lemme _have _some! I've got alcohol tolerance _up the ass_! All I want is some beer! No hard shit!" Thorn's words were having no effect on the busty woman, so Thorn crossed her arms and sulked, muttering something that sounded very much like "stupid, big-boobed _cop_ of a bartender."

"I don't even _like _any of that crap," said Lily, shrugging. "Besides, _you_, my thorny little Chicken, do _not _need any real intoxicants. Sugar has a frightening enough effect on you." Thorn growled sulkily, but then brightened unexpectedly as Tifa and Barrett's backs both turned at exactly the right moment, and she stole an expertly taken sip of beer from Barret's can. A slow grin spread over the fourteen-year-old's face.

"You are incorrigible," said Lily.

"Proud of it, babe," replied Thorn. At that moment everyone was distracted by the sound of a sharp knocking on the glass part of the closed bar's door. Thorn saw Lily's eyes move, but couldn't bring her own to. Perhaps she was too lazy? She felt Lily's hand on her chin, and allowed her head to swivel to look at who was asking to be let in.

Reno. Rude. Rufus. And Tseng.

"Hey, it's the idiots!" burst out Yuffie, suddenly becoming _much _louder in the space of seconds. The explanation for this was found in what looked like at least seven small bottles of sake gathered around her place at the shiny bar counter. "Let 'em in, boobs!" Thorn's eyes slid with interest over a red ponytail, shades, flash of blue eyes, and a quirk of a dark brow. Her eyes picked out only specific details of the four men—she didn't even think of Elena, the Lady Turk.

Tifa obliged, saying in a voice that sounded like it went with a teasing smile (Thorn couldn't tell because Tifa's back was to her again, and she took another opportunity to sneak a sip of beer,) "We're closed, you know…"

"Well, y'all look like you're partying it up real good anyhow, yo." It was Reno's voice, and he was in the door as soon as half the room needed was available. Without warning a small shuriken was chucked haphazardly his way by the drunken ninja nearby him. Reno dodged the thing easily (apparently Yuffie's aim deteriorated when she was drunk) and proceeded to inform Tifa that she ought to "drag her cleavaged carcass" (this term earning him a slap to the back of the head by a passing Rude) "over here to give him some tequila". Tifa slapped his ear and supplied the wanted shotglass full of hard liquor.

_I want somma that…_ Thorn thought. She knew better than to try and get between the famous Reno and his booze, however. At that moment, the four newcomers seemed to realize that she and Lily were both young and unknown to them.

"Little irr'sponsible, ain't it? Drinkin' 'round kids, yo," Reno said, "who're they, anyway?"

"Thorn and Lily," Lily supplied, gawking at the redhead Turk. She cast a glance Thorn's way that read, _Not a bishi boat. A bishi BAR._

Rufus and Tseng, both opting for the formal procedure, took turns shaking hands with Thorn and Lily. Thorn shook both the attractive men's hands firmly, resisting the pressing urge to spaz out of control at just how pretty Rufus Shinra really _was._ Almost as pretty as Vinny. No, no one was as pretty as Vinny.

_Bad fangirl,_ she snapped at herself. Rude merely cast a glance at the pair of them, before accepting the glass of dark beer offered to him by Tifa. Rude and Vincent appeared to share a look. However, Vincent then went back to his…

_BEER?!_ Thorn thought, looking in shock at the beer bottle in Vincent's human hand. And it wasn't the only one. Vincent had silently and unobtrusively killed six beers already, and no visible change to his demeanor. _God DAMN._

"So, what are all of you doing here? And where's Elena?" asked Tifa, with a slight tilt of her head. It wasn't every day that the male population of the Turks and the president of Shinra paid them a visit. In fact, neither group had spoken to the other since Sephiroth's resurrection. Rude said nothing. Reno shrugged.

"Ever'where else was closed, yo. An' no one likes us enough these days to let us in after hours."

"We all just thought," Rufus said, (and from the way he said we, Thorn knew he meant I) "that it might be nice to drop by and say hello to the double-saviors of the world." Eh, sounded like a shitty reason, but Thorn wasn't complaining.

"Elena is not feeling well," said Tseng.

Yuffie, who seemed to be getting bored of sake, had now pilfered a bottle of the same tequila Reno was drinking and was guzzling it while running wildly around. The strange thing was that she was now trying to resume her previous mission to stuff silverware up Vincent's sleeve. However, this time she seemed to forget the presence of his claw and did not try for the correct arm. This resulted in a repeated _screeching_ and scraping noise, which Vincent only dispelled by finally snatching the cheese spreader out of Yuffie's hands and dropping it into one of his empty beer bottles. Then he resumed drinking.

Rufus had accepted a glass of wine, and was sipping it with an amused expression on his face. Lily was watching with even more amusement as she counted, and realized that she would more than likely very soon be the only sober one left, except maybe Tifa. Reno was already boozed up, and kept trying to grope Tifa and make it look like the accidental result of reaching for the tequila bottle. Tifa merely swatted his hand away repeatedly, while Cloud smoldered away in jealousy and anger at the Turk as he killed a large glass mug of light beer. Thorn, who Tifa seemed to have given up on, was only about a fifth as psycho as she usually was after being exposed to sugar, which was pretty good, seeing as she had probably drunk more of Barret's beer than Barret had.

Reno seemed to realize that his pursuits with Tifa were a lost cause, because soon enough, he and Yuffie were sitting on the floor together arms wrapped over shoulders and sharing a bottle of tequila.

"Forty-nine Honeybeeees on th'wall! Forty-nine Ho-neybees! Take one down, pass 'er around…" Reno never reached the end of this song, because Yuffie promptly emptied the rest of the bottle they had been sharing on his head, then smacked him heartily.

"Moron Turk!" she cried, hiccuping.

Lily found her way to Thorn through the insanity of a drunken bunch of AVALANCHE members and Turks. Thorn grinned.

"Hey Lil!" she said. Lily resolved that Thorn was _not_ pissed drunk, which was a good thing, and spoke.

"Thorn," she said, in a low voice. "I think maybe you should try talking to Cloud. He doesn't seem drunk yet, but he might be a little easier to talk to with the hinges a little greased up." Thorn glanced over at the spiky-headed blonde, who was so far not participating in the activities of intoxicated fellows, and nodded.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Thorn hopped off the bar stool she sat on, and crossed over to where Cloud sat mostly alone.

"Cloud?" she said tentatively to get his attention. The pseudo-ex-SOLDIER looked up, blue eyes locking onto brown ones in a manner that indicated to Thorn that the warrior was completely sober in his entirety.

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened," she said, rather lamely. Something shifted behind Cloud's azure eyes, though Thorn could not tell whether she was heading in a good or bad direction. "I dunno what was going on..." Cloud stared evenly at her for a moment, and Thorn bit her lip. Finally, he broke the painful silence.

"It's okay," he said, taking a sip of his newly-filled stein and shrugging. "Not your fault, I guess…" When he looked back at her, Thorn noticed that Cloud's gaze had softened slightly. Not much, but it was a bit kinder than it had been before. Considering her mission accomplished, Thorn gave a small grin and walked off. Well. That had gone surprisingly well. She sat down in her previously occupied bar stool, only to turn and see Vincent staring unfathomably at her from where she sat. When his crimson gaze did not deter, Thorn stood up and drew closer.

"Vincent? Y'alright?" she said, trying to see what exactly was wrong with him. Vincent did not reply, merely stared with a deadened expression. Thorn looked over at the clock; it was about one in the morning by this point. Her eyes counted at least a dozen empty beer bottles in front of him.

Suddenly and without warning, Vincent's eyes closed and he fell forward out of his seat and right _into_ Thorn. She let out a slight grunt of surprise, knees buckling under the man's weight. Vincent could have been heavier, but he was definitely heavy enough for Thorn's fourteen-year-old taste. It took most of her strength to hold the unconscious man up, and she couldn't even think about pushing him back onto his stool.

"Hey, someone help me out here!" she said loudly. "Vincent went an' passed out!" No one responded; they were all either too drunk to notice or busy with other pursuits. Lily found Thorn, however, and promptly burst out laughing at the sight of Thorn holding up Vincent Valentine by hooking her arms under his armpits.

"I'm not even gonna ask what you two were doing when he passed out," said Lily, still laughing.

"Aw, shuddup ya perv," said Thorn. "Everyone else's too boozed up. Help me carry 'im up to his room." Chuckling still, Lily came and helped Thorn shift Vincent's weight so that Thorn carried him by the shoulders, and Lily was holding his ankles. Both nearly tripped over the unconscious man's cloak several times as they went up the stairs, cursing vehemently as they went.

"Why am I suddenly getting many ideas of what we could do to this guy and record it for later use?" said Thorn, chuckling as well now as they neared Vincent's room (he was one of the few who had gotten a room all to himself.)

"Eh. He'd probably wake up the second we came near him with any supplies or a camera," said Lily. Thorn agreed. Finally, they left Vincent lying on top of his bed covers. After a moment's consideration, they decided not to remove his cloak for him and exited the room as quickly as possible.

"Damn. Sad to miss an opportunity for blackmail like that," said Thorn, sighing.

"Too true, too true," replied Lily.


	6. The Unoriginallytitled Chapter

Kamikaze Moogle

_Chapter Six_

Lily watched in horror as her best friend glared furiously at her with anger-steeped brown eyes, then walked out of the door. She did not move, and yet she knew that Thorn was walking out of the front door, away from Seventh Heaven. Away from Lily. Away from AVALANCHE.

---

_Her eyes had not even opened yet, and still she felt as though something was terribly wrong. As her brain stirred slowly into real consciousness, Lily did not open them yet, trying to convince herself that his feeling was left over from some dream or another, but to no avail. Something was not right._

_Opening gray-tinged azure optics, Lily felt a thrill of horror as she realized very quickly what the problem was. Thorn was lying beside her with her eyes closed, and yet Lily could feel the hidden orbs beneath the eyelids watching her. Veins stood out from Thorn's skin along her temples, throbbing, and when Lily's own eyes widened in fear, Thorn's snapped open, revealing the same poisoned mako eyes she had seen before._

"_Thorn!" she gasped, terror she was not used to pumping in her blood. Saying her friend's name was not enough to clear Thorn's eyes this time, and Thorn continued to stare eerily._

"_No," she spoke, in a voice filled with cruel amusement and malice, "not quite…" Lily rolled away from this _thing _that had replaced her friend, thoughts scrabbling to find some way to dispel what was happening._

_**Maybe it's a dream,**__ she thought, shaking her head._

"_Chicken," she said, hoping to jog something with the use of a nickname (that seemed to work in fiction writings and films sometimes) "it's me… Wake up." It worked, and Lily let out a breath of relief. Thorn blinked, looking confused._

"_Lil, what's wrong?" she said. Lily knew it was getting worse from the expression on Thorn's face. She didn't even remember _at all_ now, whereas before it had just been blurry. And hadn't she claimed to be 'not quite' Thorn? That was a new and disturbing development._

"_Chicken," said Lily, "we have to find a way to stop this. You're getting worse, you know that, don't you?" She could see in Thorn's eyes a flicker of an answer that didn't make it past her lips. Lily knew that Thorn did know._

"_I…don't know what happened…" Thorn said, sitting up and rubbing her temples, where the veins had ceased to pop._

"_I got that…" grumbled Lily._

"_I'm sorry," Thorn replied, truly looking it. She seemed to gather from the way that Lily was behaving that it had happened again. Lily was not very much consoled._

"_Thorn, I'm serious. You're not even really thinking about it. I know it's easier that way for you, but it can't go on like that. If you don't think about it and try to make a concerted effort, people are going to get hurt, including you!"_

"_Now you sound like my guardian or something," Thorn said in an irritated tone._

"_I can't help saying what's the truth!" Lily said._

"_So you know everything now?"_

"_No, but you don't seem to be thinking enough to know _anything_ at the moment."_

"_And how would you know what I'm thinking?"_

"_So who does, Thorn? Does __**mother**__ know better than me?" The words had found their way past Lily's lips angrily without her thinking about it. She knew better than to try and take them back, because the look of hurt and outrage that crossed Thorn's features._

---

Lily had not gone after Thorn after she disappeared into the impossibly early morning. No one else was awake yet. She paced the room she had been sharing with Thorn, thoughts racing like wild horses around her mind. What could she do? What should she do?

Lily's brain was going over the sequence of events: the earthquake, arriving in the forest, the incident with Cloud and Thorn, on the airship, everything. The streaming green lights filled Lily's mind again and again, screaming to be examined more closely as a memory.

And it clicked. Streaming green lights? What kind of a fangirl was she not to recognize the very Lifestream from whence all characters came (canonically speaking)? And if they had been in the Lifestream before showing up in the regular reality of Final Fantasy VII, that would certainly explain…

So it was not the spectre of Sephiroth in Thorn, but "Heaven's dark harbinger," Jenova. And she, Lily, had let Thorn go. Urgency pounded against her skull, and Lily was on her feet in an instant. She ran out of her door, crashing along the hallway in her haste. By chance she reached Vincent's door first. Lily pounded against it with her fist, and when it took more than a millisecond for Vincent to appear, Lily moved on, pounding on other doors and forgetting who slept in them.

Several were emerging now, Vincent, Tifa, Cloud, and Nanaki among them (Nanaki bearing Cait Sith on his head.) They all looked rather surprised, and in some cases, annoyed, to be woken or interrupted from whatever it was they were doing in their rooms by the fifteen-year-old.

"What's the problem?" said Cloud groggily, apparently wondering why he was awake at such an early hour.

"Thorn's gone!" Lily said frantically, realizing as she said these words what a fool she had been to watch Thorn go without trying to stop her in any way.

"How'd that happ'n? Aw thought she w's sharin' a room with ya…" said Cid, rubbing his head irritably as he joined the hallway in response to the noise being created. Lily had no response for this, so she changed the subject hastily.

"I figured it out, though! How it all happened, I mean," she said, desperate to let it be known.

"How?" replied Vincent curtly, appearing to comprehend that by "it," Lily meant their appearance in the forest, and the "oddities" (as it were) seen in Thorn.

"There was an earthquake, a big one," explained Lily, "and somehow in the middle of it we were transported directly into the Lifestream." Lily took a brief moment to see how this information went over. The expressions on the faces of the adults didn't really tell her anything, so she went on.

"Anyway, I'm guessing that we got somehow transported through the Lifestream to where we met you four," she looked at Cloud, Yuffie, Vincent, and Tifa, "but I think while we were still _in_ the Lifestream, something went in Thorn. But I was thinking about it, and I don't think it's really Sephiroth—I mean, I think what's really there is—"

"Jenova, the Calamity herself," said Vincent. His voice was even, but his eyes were burning.

"And you're telling us you let her _leave_?" Cloud chimed in incredulously.

"Cloud, there is nothing more to be said on that matter," said Vincent sharply. "All that can be done is to find the girl."

"Lily, you should stay here," said Tifa. "Barret, will you watch Denzel and Marlene again…? Or should I…?"

"I'm not waiting around here while you two go and look for Thorn!" interrupted Lily, cutting into Tifa's musings. "I'm coming with you!"

"But, you're…" Tifa started vaguely.

"Just a kid? Hey, I'm a year older than Thorn, aren't I?" Lily was growing irritated with Tifa. "You know, I'm not just some sheltered little girl who's only now being put into situations where things are really serious. I'm fifteen, besides. Sixteen in a few months."

"Your weapon?" Vincent inquired.

"Vincen—" Tifa began.

"Quarter staff," Lily said simply, a satisfied expression on her face. The others looked as though they had expected Lily to provide an embarassed expression then mumble something about how she didn't _actually _know any, and were now rather surprised. Never mind, Lily thought to herself, that she'd probably be owned by anything that came along to fight them without any materia.

"See if you can't find something in there," Cloud pointed to a closet that Lily had previously believed to be filled with coats. "If you can keep up, you can come." Defeated Tifa nodded. Barret looked as though he wanted to 'lift her spirits' as the phrase went.

"I'll stick around with Marlene 'n' Den," he said gruffly. "You g'on and find the kid."

"Okay," said Tifa. At that moment, Lily returned hefting a sturdy quarterstaff in one hand.

"We have consumed enough time," said Vincent, turning on his heel, "let us go."

---

_Pain edged her thoughts, making each snippet of articulation jumpy and malformed. She could feel her attentiveness ebbing, control over her own mind slipping, slipping…_

Thorn sucked in a breath slowly, feeling the stale air of the cave running along her chapped lips, down her throat and along her dry lungs. Were it not for the fragments of light that found her here, she would have lost count of the days after the first one. However, in the back of her mind, she knew that it had been five days since she had left Seventh Heaven.

Mahogany eyes traveled over the empty hollow in the ground where water had flowed from a crack in the stone wall of the cave for the first three days. When the water had stopped flowing, Thorn had stopped caring, and drinking.

Her tongue ran over peeling lips tentatively, trying to coax some health back into them, but to no avail. Instead she tasted the salty, metallic tang of blood on her mouth, causing her tongue to shrink away. Thorn's fingernails were edged at the cuticles with the rust red of dried ichor, the whites of said nails no longer white for the same gore beneath them.

_Will it end? _she thought mournfully, desperately. What a fool she had been, to let her emotions get the better of her and drive her away from her only friend in this reality. Here she was alone, surrounded by rock, pain, and thirst. Thorn traced her fingers over the rock floor of the cave where she sat, attempted to raise her arm, and failed miserably. _So tired_… and yet there was no sleep.

_Does __**mother**__ know better than me?_ How the words had cut Thorn, as though to create multiple lacerations in her skin. Had she been behaving no differently than a selfish Remnant? _Will it end?_ Her thoughts were blurring, burning, flaming with that familiar yet alien fire. Thorn's eyes shut, dreading the continued suspension from all other life, when she heard a voice.

"Thorn!" The voice called her mind back to the hollow shell of a body it belonged to. "Thoooorn! You in here?" Lily… That was Lily's voice… She wanted to speak, but her tongue was too dry. Thorn was desperate; what if they left without realizing she was there? What if she were abandoned? No, don't leave!

"She's here!" A wave of relief washed over Thorn, a wave that nevertheless did not douse the ever-present ache of her tired body. She felt hands at the base of her head, holding her up more. Her vision wouldn't focus properly… Hands felt her forehead.

"Chicken, it's okay. We're gonna…" the voice faded for a moment or two. "…ll right." Then the voice spoke to someone else.

"I can't carry her. Someone……but be careful…" She felt other hands on her now, strong ones encased in leather that traveled briefly over her arms, then curled around her knees and under her back. The faintest of sounds escaped her as she was lifted and her head fell backward unexpectedly.

"Watch her head," said Lily's voice, sounding annoyed. If Thorn had been thinking straight, or perhaps if her body would have allowed her, she might have smirked at Lily's words. But it was a blur to Thorn, only words clearly distinguishable, if at all…

_Water, running across her skin, warm and cleansing…_

_A chair, soft under her weight, but wood under her fingers. Fingers, trying to grasp._

_Scarlet, a vague red shape._

_Words…_

"_Thorn, we must speak to you."_

No. She could not be bothered to answer now… She could not hear that it had been foolish to run away. No… She must speak. She must say no…

"I…" her words were grunts, barely English. "haven't slept in…five days…so tired…"

_More words, firm, unyeilding…_

"_No. Listen. Get a hold of yourself."_

_Different words this time. Lily's words…_

"_**Listen here**__, vampire-boy! That's my best friend you're talking to. Maybe it's escaped your notice, but the last week and a half have been kinda __**weird**__ for her, jackass, and after what it looks like she's been through, if she says she needs sleep, she __**damn well needs sleep.**__"_

_A pause._

"_Very well."_

_A bed. Blankets. A pillow…_

_Sleep._

---

Vincent was irritated. Very irritated. But there was nothing he could do but wait, now. The girl youth had been asleep for at least fifteen hours, and Vincent had been sitting there for every minute of them, waiting for Thorn to wake up.

Perhaps he should have done what everyone else had advised. Perhaps he too should be sleeping. But they had very nearly lost the obstinate teenager, all because they were sleeping when she chose to run away. No. He could be obstinate as well. He would not take his eyes off her until this was resolved, for who else was there? Lily had also fallen asleep soon after she had been quite sure that her friend's peace would not be interrupted. Tifa, Cloud, and the others had all taken it in their turn to rest as well. But Vincent remained here, resolute.

He had called into use other methods of distracting himself from the passing time. Vincent had read nearly every book he could get his hands on by this point without straying more than a few paces from the room. Now all he could do was sit and stare.

Vincent had memorized every minor detail of this blasted room. Every tiny crack or indent in the wall, he knew by heart. Every spot on the curtains had been looked over many times, until Vincent could no longer bear to cast a crimson gaze over them. Now, for lack of anything better to do, he had set about memorizing everything he could see of the girl from where he sat.

Her face was more frown than smile, Vincent had observed, even though when awake she had the capability to be inordinately hyper. Nevertheless, there were the faintest of lines on her young face around her eyebrows from frowning, though none around her mouth, even when she was relaxed into such deep sleep, and appeared not to be dreaming.

The girl's hands had surprised Vincent, actually. He had never seen them without the leather fingerless gloves that usually covered her palms, and a little past her knuckles. The gloves made them look stubby and small. They were long-fingered and elegant, really the only elegant part of this teenager. Vincent had always observed that a person's hands could tell you both who someone was born and who they turned out to be. Someone in Thorn's family must have been elegant. But Thorn was not. Vincent could see small, pale scars along the otherwise tanned skin, the folds of skin around her knuckles deep, and faint, tiny lines crisscrossing over them in the millions, indicating that Thorn had not bothered to protect her hands from the elements in the past. Nevertheless, Thorn's hands had been elegant to start with, and they made Vincent wonder just who and where the girl came from.

The door opened unexpectedly, and Vincent turned his head to see Tifa. He waited without saying anything for her to speak.

"Hi, Vincent," she said softly, apparently not wanting to wake Thorn—though in Vincent's opinion, very little _would _wake her at this point. "I just brought up some fruit. Thought you might be hungry…" She handed the bowl and a knife to Vincent, who took it with a nod and a murmur of thanks.

Before the door closed his eyes were back on Thorn. With one hand he held an apple, and in the other he held the knife with which he cut it, slicing the apple into sections. When this was done, he raised a piece to his mouth, tongue happy at flavor and stomach ready to accept nourishment, which he had otherwise ignored for some time now.

Vincent's face taughtened briefly as he bit down on his own cheek by accident, and he tasted iron against his tongue. At the taste of the metallic fluid, he immediately felt a stirring under his skin. Vincent's good hand shot out in vain to grip a chair arm, which was not present. For lack of anything else, his gloved fingers wrapped around the arm of his claw, grip tight to try and release some of the tension that was gathering in his spine, shooting down through the rest of him. _No. _Absolutely _not._

Will won out over beast, and Vincent pushed the stirring down into the great depths of himself, breathing evening out to its normal pace.

Was the taint of Jenova like a demon? Vincent eyed Thorn's sleeping face. Had Thorn been sitting in that cave for days, 'hanging in the balance,' as it were, with the Calamity eating at her insides? Did Thorn's heart race as his did when her eyes turned poison blue and mako green? Was the only thing that separated the two curses the fact that while Chaos and the others had distinctive forms, Jenova had to make do with a human shape?

Vincent suddenly felt selfish and ruthless, like a one-person Shin-Ra corporation. Within moments he was on his feet, halfway to the door. Why had he been sitting here, waiting impatiently for the tired child to awake? The cloaked man stopped in the doorway, however, when he heard movement behind him. Turning to look at the stirring teenager, Vincent saw her fawn-colored eyes lock onto his. There was a moment where they merely watched each other silently. Then Vincent turned away, and all he said before leaving the room was, "Sleep."


	7. DISEASE AND FAMINE!

Kamikaze Moogle

_Chapter Seven_

Thorn didn't immediately open her eyes when she woke. The sound of chirping birds outside, which she usually found banal and irritating, today gave her a calm sense of peace, something she was greatly appreciative of. When she did allow her eyes to acknowledge the world as well, she saw a freshly minted sunbeam, throwing into sharp relief the swirling particles of dust that would have otherwise remained invisible in the air.

After contemplating this for a few seconds, Thorn realized she was breathing through her mouth. This was unusual; like most humans, Thorn generally breathed through her nose. When she tried this, she realized that her nose was completely blocked. _You have __**got**__ to be kidding me…_ Thorn sat up, trying again. When this failed, Thorn spoke to the air as a test.

"Fuck," she croaked. Yes, there was no doubt about it. The unthinkable had happened: Thorn had a cold. Clearing her throat made no difference; her voice was half gone. _Awww maannn… _She hadn't had a cold in _months_. What the _fuck?_

_Well, I guess I did sit in a cold cave for five days…_ she thought bitterly. _Boy, was THAT smart…_

The door to the room she shared with Lily opened, revealing her best friend.

"Hey Chicken," she said, smiling to see Thorn awake. "How ya feelin'?" Thorn looked dismally up at her from where she sat in bed.

"I'b got a cold," Thorn croaked, snuffling.

"Aw, that sucks," Lily replied.

"Yeah id does," Thorn said, getting out of bed irritably. She had seen a battered box of tissues sitting unused on a shelf and intended to make use of this random resource. Lily watched as Thorn blew her nose heartily, tossing the tissue into the waste paper basket across the room. It took only a few times of Thorn coughing raggedly, trying to speak, then coughing again, that Lily placed her hands on her hips in an inordinately motherly fashion.

"Okay. You're sick. And it's not like you have much to do right now. So go back to bed already."

"Whatd ford?" _Man, been a while since I've added Ds to the end of everything_. "I can'td justd sitd around ind bed all day…"

"You can and you will, at least for now." Lily flicked Thorn's forehead, which truthfully wouldn't have done a whole lot to induce Thorn's submission had she not decided to offer it anyway. Sinking back into bed, Thorn cast Lily a baleful glare before settling down with the box of tissues clasped in her ungloved hands.

"Figures I get sick now…" she grumbled, "it's not enough that I'm the psycho homicidal bitchface of the story. I'm the _congested_ psycho homicidal bitchface."

"Eh. You can be psycho homicidal if you really want," said Lily, shrugging, "but I think the title of bitchface supreme still goes to Rufus."

"Fine then." Thorn thrust her fist into the air. "I SHALL have the title of supreme bitchface, Rufus Shinra! YOU'LL SEE!" Exhausted from her efforts, Thorn collapsed against her pillows. Lily chuckled and left the room.

---

Cloud took a sip from a chipped mug of coffee handed to him by Tifa (which also came with a playful wink and witty remark on the reason as to why Cloud got the chipped one.) The dark roast steamed calming scent into his nose while also rolling across his tongue and engulfing him in the general aura of uber-coffee-fullness.

Cloud looked to his left at Vincent, who was sitting on the side of the table perpendicular to Cloud's. The scarlet-eyed man had accepted the coffee that Tifa had presented him with, but after taking the first required sip to show his appreciation hadn't touched it further.

The blonde swordsman looked up as the elder of the two adolescent visitors to Seventh Heaven, Lily, entered the room from the stairs.

"Hey," she said to the room at large, plopping down in a chair. She got little response, other then a slight raise of the head in acknowledgement from most of the men in the room, though she did get a pleasant "good morning" from Tifa. Yuffie was still asleep as of yet.

A look went from Cloud to Vincent, and Cloud looked over at Lily before saying, "We ought to talk to Thorn today. She's been sleeping a long time, and, well, there's things to be dealt with." Lily nodded, but looked apprehensive.

"Yeah, I dunno if you really wanna go in there right away. She's not feelin' too good and might want her space for a bit." The reaction to Lily's words from the others was immediate and, to Lily, shocking. Cloud's and Vincent's heads jerked in Lily's direction, Barrett and Cid cursed into their tea and coffee respectively, and Tifa looked worried.

"Do you mean—"

"Is she all right?"

"What's going—"

"—the fuck?"

In a flurry of movement everyone was on their feet, and no one was listening to Lily anymore, which was just as well, as the fifteen-year-old was watching in disbelief as everyone misinterpreted what she was saying the same way as opposed to voicing her protests any longer. Instead, she just followed, one eyebrow raised, as everyone thundered up the stairs toward the room Thorn and Lily shared.

Cloud barely paused to knock (and only did that as a result of the look Tifa was giving him) before opening the unlocked door. The sight that met AVALANCHE's eyes was not what they expected. Instead of a murderous fourteen-year-old Calamity vessel menace they saw a sickly teenager blowing her nose and surrounded by tissues. Thorn looked up with red-rimmed eyes.

"I'm not gonna go psycho and kill everyone, if that's whatd dyou're thinking… I'b justd sick."

Thorn watched Cloud give a mumbled apology, then AVALANCHE file out of the room, leaving only Lily in their wake. And Thorn didn't even bother to say anything, but just chucked one of her fingerless gloves in Lily's direction as hard as she could, because before Thorn even saw her she knew that tears were already streaming down Lily's cheeks from uncontrollable laughter.


	8. Church Smurch

Kamikaze Moogle

_Chapter Eight_

Thorn was feeling hard-done by at the moment. Very hard-done by. She had spent the majority of the morning blowing her nose so loudly that she could scarcely hear what anyone was saying to her. Moreover, she was sure that it annoyed everybody significantly, and furthering her bad rep, given the situation, was not what Thorn needed. Then around eleven Cloud started sending her shifty looks again over his coffee, which by this time he had consumed about a quart of. Furthermore, Vincent wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to anybody; in fact, he had the distant sort of look that any fangirl would likely link to Lucrecia. Anyway, the whole thing wound up making Vincent look even sexier than usual, and while Thorn's resolve not to hug him was holding strong, it was getting hard not to just…keep…staring… at him.

Why'd she have to turn out a rabid fangirl anyway? Thorn was completely resolved to blame it on Lily, who had been the one to introduce her to most fandoms she was obsessed with today. When Cloud finally said something to break the sleepy silence that _somehow_ (don't ask her) had come over Seventh Heaven (maybe it was the fact that Yuffie was out shopping) Thorn had to appreciate the presence of something besides Vincent's steamy eyebrows to distract herself from the monotony with.

"We decided what to do next."

"Mmm?" Both Lily and Thorn, who had been sitting together, looked up intently, but it was Thorn who voiced the minimally articulated question. Lily just raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"We're going to visit an old friend," chimed in Tifa. Thorn looked from Tifa to Cloud to Lily. That confirmed that Lily had been thinking of the same person she had. Looking back at Cloud, Thorn nodded.

"Mkay. When're we goin'?"

"In about fifteen minutes," answered Cloud, walking out of the room once he had said this. Vincent didn't move or say anything. He merely tipped his chair back in a manner between bored and tense, waiting for everyone else to be ready to go. It was at this moment that the front door opened, revealing Yuffie, back from wherever it was she had gone off to.

"Hey Yuff," said Thorn in greeting. _Interesting_ circumstances aside, she and the ninja had been getting on fairly well. Yuffie grinned and waved, then tugged on a lock of Vincent's hair as she walked inside the rest of the way.

"Ya look like an impatient two-year-old, Vin," she said, "what're you in a hurry for?"

"We're going—" Lily jabbing her elbow into Thorn's side made the younger girl cut off, then resume with a different thread of what's she'd been saying. "—somewhere, apparently." She shrugged, and Yuffie looked quizically at Tifa, who gave her a significant look. It took Yuffie a moment before it visibly dawned on her. The ninja's eyes widened slightly, and a slight "oh," escaped her lips.

"Well, I'm commin'," she said. "Gimme a sec." Yuffie bounded up the stairs. What followed was a silence in the room, but suddenly sounds started drifting down the stairs. A series of loud crashes echoed down, followed by Yuffie screeching obscenities that made Tifa sigh and mutter something about Marlene and Denzel, following what sounded like some sort of animal, then what sounded like a small explosion. A few minutes later Yuffie reappeared. Thorn was cracking up at the look on Lily's face, which resembled something like a cross between scared parent and traumatized teenager.

"I don't want to know," said Lily, voicing everyone's thoughts as Yuffie grinned and bounced on the soles of her feet, waiting for everyone else.

"All right, let's head out," Cloud said to the room at large, leaving the very pointed "anyway" in his tone unsaid. Vincent was on his feet and to the door before most of them had even gotten out of their chairs, which seemed to Thorn like it should have been more difficult, seeing as the cloaked man had been tipping his chair precariously far backwards, a habit that Thorn was more than guilty of on several counts, and she knew that one couldn't usually get up extremely quickly from that position.

Instead of going toward the door of Seventh Heaven, though, it seemed that they were supposed to be headed upstairs, which Lily proceeded to ask Tifa about.

"The Shera's docked on the roof," the bartender replied simply.

It was only when she started climbing the stairs that Thorn realized that Barret and Cid had kept their seats. Before Thorn could say anything to wonder about why the two men weren't coming with them, Cloud had turned and spoken.

"Cid, we need you to pilot the Shera. We have to get there fast." Cid shrugged, and rose from the table where he had been sitting brooding over his tea, walking over to join the group.

"How come Barret's not coming?"

"Most of us are a little sensitive about this friend we're seeing," answered Tifa in a low voice. "Barret too. I suppose it's a little too much for him. He's very sensitive under the surface." Well, that sort of made sense to Thorn. After all, unless she was very much mistaken, they were going to try and see Aerith (the would-be deity didn't seem to have problems making appearances...)

----

Aerith's church looked much like it had in Advent Children, except for the fact that the large pool of Lifestream-ified Holy water had disappeared, leaving flourishing flowers in its wake. The roof that Cloud had smashed through all that time ago was still in disrepair, but it only served to allow more light to flow into the sacred building. The column that had been knocked over during Cloud's fight with Kadaj had been put back into place though (by Cloud, Thorn had no doubt), so the structure was likely to survive for quite a long time yet. Even the wooden pews scattered to the walls of the building by Tifa and Loz' fight were set straight once more. Sun filtered through the stained glass windows, throwing patches of color that changed in shade or hue when regular beams of light permeated them over the pale flowers growing out of the ground (either yellow or white in original color.) It was beautiful in a very light, pure sort of way, which didn't exactly appeal to Thorn's taste, but she could still appreciate it somewhat.

In the complete silence of the church, each of the group's footsteps became magnified, which made even Yuffie up the tact and step more lightly. When they came to the place where the wooden floor ended and the Cetra's flowers began, everyone stopped, perfectly still. Lily was looking around the church with interest, and when Thorn caught her eye, there was a distinct tone of uncertainty as to what they should do now in Thorn's gaze.

Cloud glanced around for a moment, then closed his eyes as if in prayer. Looking around at the other AVALANCHE members who had come along, Thorn noticed that while only Tifa and Nanaki had actually closed their eyes as well (Nanaki's head bowed regally) nobody was actually looking at Cloud, so Thorn decided to do as the Romans do and simply lowered her eyes, waiting for something to happen.

At first Thorn was somewhat afraid that Cloud would have to say something embarrassingly cheesy for her to appear to them, some dramatic plea for help or some such. Or worse, nothing would happen at all unless everyone in AVALANCHE did the hokey pokey or something because Aerith was feeling vindictive that day. However, all half-sarcastic thoughts on the subject faded from her mind as from each source of light the illumination cast on the church seemed to intensify, brightening their surroundings until Thorn had to squint to keep her eyes open. Finally, it abated to a soft, comforting white color, sort of obscuring almost everything but the flowers from view. Thorn could vaguely see the walls and pews of the church, but her focus was on the woman who had appeared before them, a little vague around the edges, but still definitely the Cetra bashed across fandom, the flower girl scorned to the edge of her existence: Aerith.


End file.
